Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA)

GAGGA rallies the collective power of the women's rights and environmental justice movements to realize a world where women can and do access their rights to water, food security, and a clean, healthy and safe environment.

Within communities around the world, women are actively resisting developments and policies that deny them their rights to water, food security and a clean, healthy and safe environment. They are playing vital roles in managing their natural resources and fighting to preserve access to them for themselves, their families and their communities. This knowledge and work by women, at the grassroots level, is often not recognised or valued, and women are still largely absent from the decision-making bodies that govern the use and control of natural resources. The Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action (GAGGA) seeks to change this situation by working with grassroots funds to support women's voices and leadership, and by advocating for policies and legal frameworks which respect, protect and fulfil women's rights. At the same time, GAGGA seeks to influence funding flows to ensure they reach grassroots groups and movements.

GAGGA: joint fight by the women's rights and environmental movements

GAGGA´s goal is to catalyse the collective power of the women´s rights and environmental justice movements towards realising a world in which women can and do exercise their rights to water, food security and a clean, healthy, and safe environment. GAGGA believes the women's rights and environmental justice movements have each achieved great success and positive strides in their respective spheres through the use of different methods and tactics. There is much they can learn from one another. And the change needed requires the attention of both, working harmoniously and effectively together.

GAGGA brings together the Fondo Centroamericano de Mujeres (FCAM), Both ENDS and Mama Cash, with the World Resource Institute (WRI) as strategic partner. With FCAM, a Central American grassroots fund based in Nicaragua with extensive experience in supporting women's rights groups as lead agent, GAGGA sets out to strengthen and unify the capabilities of grassroots groups to lobby and advocate with and for women to claim their rights to water, food security and a clean, healthy and safe environment.

The Role of Both ENDS in GAGGA

Both ENDS specifically brings in the environmental angle of this program as well as its expertise in lobby & advocacy at international level. In GAGGA, Both ENDS supports environmental grassroots funds, NGOs and networks to engage directly in lobby &advocacy activities at local, national and international levels, and builds the capacities of grassroots groups to do so.

Together we monitor socially and environmentally unsustainable policies, and investments of international financial institutions and new financial mechanisms (with an emphasis on development, climate, and infrastructure) and propose sustainable alternatives.

Read more about this subject

Small grants funds offer an effective, alternative way to channel big money from large donors and funds to local groups and organisations that are striving for a sustainable and just society everywhere around the world.

Local organisations and groups must be given access to climate finance from the Green Climate Fund. They know exactly what is happening in their local context and what is required for climate adaptation.

During the 24th Conference of the Parties (COP24) of the UNFCCC taking place in Katowice, Both ENDS partner Raju Pandit Chettri – director of Prakriti Resources Centre in Nepal - was one of the selected Southern leaders to meet with the Dutch Minister of Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade, Sigrid Kaag. We asked Raju about his expectations, messages, Kaag's responses and his experiences of the meeting.

Last September, approximately 30 women and men from community based organizations of Honduras and El Salvador learned the tool of analog forestry which uses natural forests as guides to create ecologically stable and socio-economically productive landscapes.

We are very proud that our director Daniëlle Hirsch has been included again in the ‘Sustainable 100’ (an annual ranking list published by Dutch newspaper Trouw), and has gone up more than 40 spots compared to last year! Danielle was included in the list because of the many things she does with her organisation as a whole, but she got the higher ranking for the way she combines her criticism of the destructive role of the Netherlands as a trading nation and large cause of CO2 emissions in the world (often supported by the Dutch government), with a constructive attitude when it comes to finding alternatives and solutions.

We congratulate Joan Carling, member of the permanent commission on indigenous peoples of the UN, for having received the Lifetime Achievement Award as 'Champion of the Earth' by the UN Environment! This is the UN's highest environmental honor, given to six of the world's most outstanding environmental change makers once a year.

Latin American partner organizations of GAGGA launched the campaign "We, women, are water" in March 2018. This video was launched as part of this campaign, and emphasizes the role of women water defenders.

The Latin American partner organizations of GAGGA launched the campaign "We, women, are water" in March 2018. This video was launched as part of this campaign, and emphasizes the importance of recognizing water as a common good.

Latin American partner organizations of GAGGA launched the campaign "We, women, are water" in March 2018. This video was launched as part of this campaign, and emphasizes the role of women in the sustainable management of water in Latin America.

The fifth session of our five part series on women's rights and climate finance, Experiences and Perspectives of Women Engaging in Climate Finance, shared the insights of three activists who have been serving as GCF Monitors as part of the "Women Demand 'Gender-Just' Climate Finance" initiative. They spoke about their processes of learning about climate finance and connecting with others to monitor climate finance in their communities and regions, discussed the value they have found in this work, and answered questions from webinar participants.

Communities from Northern Guatemala have filed a complaint this week against the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). They bear the brunt of the construction of two large hydropower dams in the Ixquisis region, that are co-financed by the IDB. This is against the bank's own policies on environment and sustainability, indigenous people, gender, and information disclosure.

This paper by Prakriti Resources Center (Nepal) sheds light on the gender and climate change nexus, gender mainstreaming as a tool to address gender inequality, gender and climate change policy landscape both at international and national level, gaps and way forward.

The Green Climate Fund aims to support transformational pathways to climate-resilient development, intends to reach those most vulnerable, and commits to a gender-sensitive approach. This session presents an important way of putting these commitments into practice: by engaging small grants funds. These funds can provide the much needed channel between large international institutions and local communities adapting to climate change, and assure financing reaches women and men to contribute to transformative climate action. But how to make this shift in how financing is delivered? The audience will be actively engaged in the discussion to come to concrete suggestions to strengthen local access and gender responsiveness of climate finance.

The fourth webinar of a five part series on women's rights and climate finance: Strategies for Organizing to Influence, Monitor, and Track Climate Finance (from Global to Local), focused on strategies to engage with various actors to both facilitate and advocate for the meaningful inclusion of the perspectives and experiences of women's groups, affected communities, and other civil society stakeholders in the design and implementation of projects and programs.

Join us for the fourth session of this five-part series on women's rights and climate finance, aimed at building knowledge and power to ensure finance flows benefit local women's groups, respond to community needs and respect human rights. The webinar will be conducted in English with simultaneous translation in Spanish and French.

The International Institute of Social Studies, Both ENDS, IUCN National Committee of the Netherlands and Mama Cash invite you for presentations by Joan Carling, indigenous leader and women's rights activist from the Philippines and member of the permanent commission on indigenous peoples of the UN, and Jan van de Venis, Human Rights Lawyer at JustLaw, about the experiences of indigenous leaders in the Philippines, in a world of increasing oppression and human right violations against environmental activists.

It was minus 20 degrees Celsius when 2.000 women gathered at the main square of Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, to voice their distress about the terrible smog in the city caused by three large power plants. Soon after, the women were invited to speak about the problem of air pollution with the minister of environment.

On the 14th of April, Both ENDS wil host a workshop called 'Small Grants, Big Impacts' on the annual Africa day in Amsterdam. The workshop aims to demonstrate that so called 'small grants funds' effectively deliver (devopment and climate) money where it matters, to people that need it the most. Large development banks, funds, donors and governments could use small grants funds as alternative financing mechanisms to make sure their money benefits people and their environment now and it the far future.

"How many layers of clothing are you wearing? One? No, that's not enough. You should wear your ski pants over your jeans, and change your shoes for snowboots." And there you are, on day 1 of your trip to Mongolia. I had already heard that Mongolia is very cold at the end of November, and with -22 degrees that seemed to be all true.

Our mission

Together with environmental justice groups from the Global South, Both ENDS works towards a sustainable, fair and inclusive world. We gather and share information about policy and investments that have a direct impact on people and their livelihood, we engage in joint advocacy, we stimulate the dialogue between stakeholders and we promote and support sustainable local alternatives.